A whistleblower, who is a long serving employee of HMRC, has told the Times that HMRC is functioning in crisis mode, with thousands of calls left unanswered and investigators cherry-picking the easiest cases.
The whistleblower claims that HMRC management have instructed staff not to get into long discussions with people contacting HMRC call centres, and not to ask additional questions. Some staff were given a maximum of five minutes to talk to each taxpayer, and just 90 seconds to update their records.
The whistleblower is quoted by economia:
"More than 100,000 taxpayer letters have been left unopened."I dare say the plans for outsourcing letter handling will address this issue.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Nothing new about this tale.
ReplyDeleteCalls left unanswered and post unopened have been a recurring theme on this and many other blogs ever since HMRC was spawned. As for time limits on handling calls, the call centres are measured on throughput with little emphasis on quality in relation to another "silos" standards e.g. personal taxes compliance.
As for quick hit investigations, what do you expect from those that have brought you London City Bond or have had senior investigation managers criticised as unreliable witnesses in
court, let alone years of criticism for failures to make proper disclosure across numerous cases.
It has long been stated that HMRC is unfit for purpose, trouble is now one cares.
plus ca change